Health Equity Symposium invites faculty, alumni and students to work together to reduce health disparities

The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine hosted its inaugural Health Equity Symposium on the Dublin campus in late February. The two-day event featured both M.D. and D.O. speakers presenting on topics as diverse as the underrepresentation of black men in medicine to ethnographic case studies of infant safe sleep in Ohio. Each lecture built momentum on the next as participants shared their own experiences in the field and discovered camaraderie among those working to improve health outcomes for patients.

The symposium’s opening panel, moderated by Dublin Campus Dean Bill Burke, D.O., brought up themes that would crop up again and again – the importance of community and the responsibility of each individual to cultivate a climate of care. 

When asked what we can do as role models to more actively foster an inclusive environment, Vanessa Morgan Nai, assistant director of belonging and engagement for the Heritage College's Athens campus, recommended starting with the self, being open and willing to grow past the lens through which you view the world. That action alone creates an inclusive space that fosters active listening.

Panelist Ryan Clopton-Zymler, assistant vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at OhioGuidestone, spoke on the importance of community in maintaining wellbeing while trying to push for progress. 

“Community will save us, it’s going to be community that saves the world,” he said, adding that being able to ask for help from his chosen community and knowing someone will show up, makes it possible for him to continue his work. While there’s nothing wrong with resting, he reminded those in the room – “don’t retreat so far that you pull away from the other people that need you, because you are their community.”

The students, faculty, alumni and staff participating in the symposium needed no such reminder. Event sponsors pointed out that just by showing up, attendees were doing the work of creating community, putting into practice the principles of osteopathic medicine and examining the problem of health inequity holistically with help and support from each other.

The Health Equity Symposium was sponsored by the Heritage College Division of Diversity and Inclusion, Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service and College of Health Sciences and Professions.